Applied Spanish 4 module (PS40001)

You will develop comprehensive linguistic knowledge, cultural insight and intercultural competence, and transferable cognitive and advanced communication skills which will be of use in your personal and professional lives. You will work within language skills level C1 (most skills and topic areas) as described in the Common European Framework for Languages.

Through recognising, understanding, and applying accurately and confidently the main vocabulary and advanced grammatical structures of Spanish, you will communicate competently across the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Skills will be developed in: creative writing, translation into English and translation theory, bilateral interpreting, and team negotiation and problem solving. Examples of topic areas are: the arts; contemporary social, cultural and ethical issues (e.g. immigration, xenophobia, terrorism, non-traditional families, status of women) and current affairs and events.

What you will learn

In this module, you will:

• apply accurately advanced grammatical structures and a rich range of vocabulary and idioms in Spanish, showing extensive awareness of complex features of the Spanish language system
• use a standard bilingual English - Spanish dictionary skilfully and a monolingual dictionary proficiently
• use new technology appropriately
• listen to, read, speak and write Spanish critically, coherently, creatively, sensitively, and effectively, individually and as part of a team, in a wide range of complex and sometimes unpredictable social and work-related contexts
• provide accurate and readable English translations of a range of complex texts in Spanish and perform effectively as interpreter during discussions between Spanish and English speakers
• research, analyse, and synthesise effectively Hispanic material from a wide range of printed, web-based, and audio-visual resources, including film and painting.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate accuracy and high levels of competence in virtually all the structures of Spanish language across the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing
• demonstrate the ability to use metalanguage to describe aspects of Spanish in relation to your first language
• demonstrate deep and extensive knowledge of the Spanish-speaking cultures and societies studied
• communicate confidently and sensitively in Spanish in a wide range of complex and unpredictable situations
• switch smoothly between Spanish and English

Assignments / assessment

• oral skills (25%)
• written coursework 1 (15%)
• written coursework 2 (15%)
• oral exam (25%)
• written exam (20%)

To pass the module, both aggregate written and aggregate oral components of the coursework must be passed.

Teaching methods / timetable

• in-person workshops
  • oral skills language classes
  • written skills language classes
• independent study